ENROLL

Thabiti Willis

This course examines the causes, features, and consequences of wars across two critical phases of African history, colonial and post-colonial. It covers four cases studies from modern Central, East, and West Africa: the Congo (first under the rule of King Leopold and later the Belgian colonial government), Tanganyika (under German colonial rule), Nigeria (during the first republic through the civil war), and Uganda (under the rule of Idi Amin). Students will learn how certain memories or interpretations of events are narrated, fashioned, truncated, contested, forgotten, or silenced. Students also will learn how different historical actors participated in and experienced war.

Greg Marfleet

Can models help us understand the social world? Vexing issues like segregation, economic inequality, corruption, market failure, resource over-exploitation, genocide, insurgency and terrorism have inspired scholars to ask if computational models of social systems can shed light on the hard-to-observe micro processes underlying macro problems. In this course we will explore the conceptual and empirical foundations of modeling especially in complex systems. We will read about, then experiment with, existing models while students learn to program their own using open-source software. 

Held for new first year students

Richard Keiser

Part One will focus on the process of candidate nomination and explanations for presidential elections. Part Two will focus on gridlock, Executive Branch tools, and strategies for governance in the midst of division.

Not open to first year students

Kent Freeze

The "Rise of China" over the past thirty-five years presents challenges and opportunities for the United States and other countries around the world. This course examines China's growing and changing influence in the world. The course starts by exploring historical Chinese foreign policy, from Imperial China through the Cold War. The course then examines a variety of different theories and factors explaining the general nature of China's foreign policy. The course concludes by detailing China's current bilateral relationships with specific countries and regions around the world.

Jon R Olson

What does that really mean? This course will afford students the opportunity to learn about nuclear, radiological, biological, chemical, and cyber WMD. We’ll explore how these weapons are built, what happens when they are used, and how they are controlled—or not—by international security agreements. A multi-disciplinary approach will be used. Professors from the political science, chemistry, physics, computer science, biology, and philosophy departments will each contribute specific sections and, along with guest lecturers, augment our discussions on questions of global and national security policy.

Greg Marfleet

Why do countries go to war? What conditions promote a lasting peace? These may well be the two most important and enduring questions in international politics. The course combines an exploration of various theoretical approaches to war and peace—including rational, psychological and structural models—with an empirical analysis of the onset, escalation, and resolution of conflict. We investigate changing patterns in the frequency of global violence and identify where it occurs more (and less) often and assess whether there is an overall trend toward a more peaceful world.